I've listened to wonderful heart warming stories - and these contain shorcuts to building strategies and shaping behaviour
I feel that I have been blessed to have the opportunity to work front-line supporting the wonderful charities I came in contact with in my role at campaign for learning. Currently working in London & South East has seen me support my charity chums face-to-face, on skype and on the phone.
The stories I hear so clearly represent the caring values that have become invisible to these organisations, because it is not scripted or rehearsed! - it comes straight from the heart! So my role is to listen and raise a mirror so they can see the building blocks behind their stories that make them so, so unique. Have you seen what lives behind your charity's or group's story? Yes, no?
From this starting point we can build a foundation and uncover vision, mission, strategy and values. You really do need these strong building blocks, because they will shape your choices, your behaviour and everthing you do as an organisation. Once documented and communicated it helps staff and service users see what you are all about. In fact, why not ask your service users if what you think of yourself - is what they think of you? - as they say, your brand is not what you say it is, it is what your publics say it is!
Here are a couple of fantastic free reads - check them out and let me know what you think! - I would love to hear from you...
work, home, community and self: prescribed integration possible according to Harvard Business Review interview
Those who have follow this blog have tended to notice how I gather evidence that lavish praise on fulfillment, passion and happiness as part of your way of being and working. Indeed in a recent blogpost on branding - I embedded a slideshare which had as a headline, happiness as a business model, and another one on research by MTV - relating to happiness, engagement, and connection to peers.
Past re-incarnations of Harvard Business Review Articles (ah those were the days when I was a student) relating to leadership and management always talked about balancing acts, and managing trade-offs. But I guess that the tide has been turning over the years, and thank God they are now talking about "integration" - if Starbucks is about 3 places (home,coffee place,work), new leadership/management is about integrating: work, home, community and self.
Stewart D. Friedman, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, states that addressing these integration of our four physical and psychological places and spaces will enable us to enjoy better: mental health, physical health, spiritual growth & development and leisure.
This is what we learned in the third sector years ago ;)
This video interview has practical implementation in the fantastic book and workbook called, "becoming a resonant leader" - (amazon link) - develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness by Annie McKee, Richard Goyatzis, and Frances Johnstone.
PDFs that are available for free also sketch out an architecture of trust & engagement - it starts with a conversation Information Communiation technologies are ever growing new tentacles and new ways to attempt to strike conversations. These intended interactions are directed at leading invididuals into an unerstanding of how organisations and companies can transform people's lives. Ofcourse, you always have the dark side. Where conversations don'e really exist - rather, monologues, as the case has been for mass media marketing. The fantastic viral video, the break up, couldn't put this more poignantly.
But how do we look at conversations & trust (before we get to the PDFs)?
Connecting Values & Connecting with people - loving people and how you can connect them? love is the killer App by Tim Sanders (wikipedia), resonates with my philosophy. Really caring and being passionate about what you do, and seeing that what you do can help make a difference to others is a fantastic way to live. I always look at being a conduit. This is one of my main callings, to be a conduit so as to connecting people with other people and resources to help them transform their lives. 'Love is the Killer App' validates those human qualities that go beyond the ego and looks at making an interpersonal difference that ripples along to touch other invididuals, just like in the movie 'pay it forward' (sorry for this plug, only £2.99 at amazon).
As some of the chinese wise men have said over the centuries, a good conversationalist and a good conversation is about genuinely listening twice as much as you talk.
Can we idealise the type of people we wish to converse with? I love talking to a variety of people. One type are those, who are modest people who love to be, think and do - driven from their hearts and values. This short sentence forms part of the type of emotional DNA snippet (eDNA) element or sequence that interests me. These are just a few qualities/characteristics. The more of the charactersitics I put together, the better the picture I obtain with that particular type. There are others who are growth led and want to learn from every opportunity that comes along. Putting together these unusual suspects, you can see how quickly you can build a unique group of individuals. These are called, Personas (wikipedia) link.
I will sign-post personas, and a non-profit model which I initiated and which I will co-develop. So you can see the importance of who you want to talk with!
Enough 'type talk' look, learn, and hopefully you will share with me and we can start helping out together
What follows are previews and linkt to the freely available PDFs that have been uploaded to issuu
Democratisation of publishing - content & its impact on the attention and digital landscape
A clue about conversations? Jump on the train...on the cluetrain I've been aching to write a blog post, but been so busy working and accumulating topics through my 'serial reading'. I guess taht I make up for my book's carbon footprint, and feel better about it being offset by my not owning a car and minimising travel to a yearly milk round.
The time machine exists and you can use it to see the evolution of conversations I'll have that big nice papaya, three mangoes, and that small bunch of bananas, I said to the fruit seller in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in my Venezuelan accent (which everyone thought was Cuban!). The guy in this small market village told me $20 (Mexican pesos). 'Cuanto?' - how much?... I said in a voice of utter disbelief and a mocking grimace that went across my face like a cloud goes over the sun in an English summer's day!
'Come on', I said in Spanish, the market is about to close, and you can tell from an accent that I'm not from here. I know about tropical fruit, and know that it is not worth as much as you claim. You know what?... I'll give you eight pesos and we can make it a fair deal . And why not make this act an official welcome to me as a tourist.? The guy laughed in his string top, shorts and plastic flip-flops, shook my hand and proceeded to handover the bag while I with the other handed him the money.
I've done the same bartering process in Istanbul, some parts of Mexico, and Venezuela, including some commercial entities who give you discount when you buy higher quantities (half a doze jeans, shirts etc.)
But we know the contrast right?...Smooth talking 'double glazing sales' routines and 'call centre operatives' These are conversations that we don't want to have because basically we feel that we are going to get done over and we are just another number, another target. There is no real want for a conversation, just to empty our wallets to fulfill quotas. It's no ones fault, just a manifestation of the mindset that reflects the supporting process of mass manufacturing.
Our comfort with the web, broadband penetration, and the technological possibilities have given a rebirth and a multitude of possibilities for new genuine conversations Our desire to socialize and connect with others has been hard-wired into our DNA for thousands of years. There is no denying that. And so has our desire to share insights, life stories, and our humanity. Where we meet doesn't matter, what matters is the genuine and frank conversations that we can share.
Reading and reflection on these issues that were 'hidden from plain sight'...at least to me How this whole lovely 'back to basic' conversations and dialogues (now over the web) was highlighted to me initially around 2003 by 'The Clue Train Manifesto' - that seemed to manifest the discomfort with business as usual. Whole set of tools have evolved over the last decade to continue to refine capture and 'leverage' these conversations in order to allow 'peer influence' to help us make appropriate choices.
The FREE Cluetrain Manifesto (online PDF) - took me on a reading journey of discovery This post, just focuses on how the 'clue train manifesto' has had such an influence of the many authors who I've recently been busy reading to see how business has embraced these new tools. Read it, and let me know how it has transform your outlook and mindset - I want business un-usual!...one that genuinely cares and wants real conversations.
In the meantime, here are the books I read recently that were definitely influenced by the manifesto. And as you can see, I have too been greatly influenced.
Discoveries, discussions, readings and ramblings tied to a philosophy of sharing and caring, and what better way to do this than in the 3rd sector? - social media, crowdsourcing and anything web 2.0 is covered
